LAGOS - At least 118 people were killed in a car bomb attack in the central Niggerian city of Jos, the country's relief agency said on Tuesday, warning that the death toll could rise further.

"The exact figure of the dead bodies recovered as of now is 118," Mohammed Abdulsalam, coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the city, told AFP.

He added that "more bodies may be in the debris" of buildings which collapsed due to the intensity of the blasts.

Fifty-six people were injured in the twin blasts, said Abdulsalam. The military said that improvised explosive devices were hidden inside a truck and a minibus and went off within 20 minutes of each other.

Most of the victims were women, Pam Ayuba, spokesman for Plateau state governor Jonah Jang, said, while the emergency services said their workers were caught up in the second blast as they attended victims from the first.

Chris Olakpe, the police commissioner of Plateau state of which Jos is the capital, told reporters earlier that 46 people were killed and 45 others were injured.

He maintained later: "We are saying 46. That's the number we have in the morgues. But we are not ruling out more bodies."

Plateau state lies in the so-called Middle Belt of Niggeria, where the largely Christian south meets the mainly Muslim north, and has been the scene of long-standing ethnic and sectarian conflict for years.

It has also been hit by Boko Haram militants, who have been waging an insurgency in Niggeria's northeast since 2009.

Niggerian President Goodluck Jonathan swiftly condemned the attack in the central city of Jos, calling it a "tragic assault on human freedom" and condemning the perpetrators as "cruel and evil".

"President Jonathan assures all Niggerians that (the) government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror and ... will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilisation," his office said.

The state and its religiously divided capital have seen deadly sectarian clashes in the past as well as attacks from Boko Haram extremists.

The deadly strike and a suicide car bomb attack that killed four in the northern city of Kano on Sunday will raise questions about the government's grip on the country's security.

The Kano bombing in a predominantly Christian neighborhood of the ancient city and commercial hub has previously been hit by the Islamist militants, although a political motive has not been ruled out.

There was no immediate indication of who was responsible for the latest attacks and the police in Kano said they had arrested two men, but the Boko Haram insurgency is Niggeria's most pressing security issue.

The militants claimed responsibility for an April 14 car bomb attack on a bus station in a suburb of the capital Abuja which killed 75.

They are also suspected of carrying out a copy-cat bombing in the same location on May 1 which left 19 dead.

Regional co-operation

International attention has been focused on Niggeria since Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state on April 14.

Northern Niggeria has been hit by a growing wave of attacks since the start of the insurgency in 2009 and sporadic attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Nigger have prompted fears of a regional threat.

Regional leaders agreed at a summit in Paris on Saturday to improve their co-operation, including by better surveillance and intelligence sharing, to end the violence.

Jonathan said in his statement on Tuesday that the summit was a success and pledged to implement its resolutions as well as existing plans to increase security.

He said "every necessary measure" should be taken to find the still 223 missing schoolgirls, and that neighbouring countries would contribute a battalion of troops each to patrol the border region and there would be a crackdown on arms trafficking.

In Niggeria, where there have been widespread concerns about the safety of schoolchildren, the police said they were beefing up security at boarding schools to prevent a repeat kidnapping.

Senior officials said they expected the results to help determine security strategies to reduce the vulnerability of schools, which have previously been seen as soft targets for the extremists.

Earlier this month, the United Nations' special envoy for global education, British former prime minister Gordon Brown, announced a "Safe Schools Initiative" to improve security at an initial 500 schools in the north.

State of emergency extended

The blasts in Jos happened after senators in the upper chamber of Niggeria's parliament gave their unanimous approval for a six-month extension to a state of emergency in three northeast states.

The lower House of Representatives had overwhelmingly backed the plan in a vote last week.

Jonathan had requested a continuation of special powers in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa because of what he said was the "daunting" security situation and mounting civilian casualties.

The approval -- the second since special powers were first introduced on May 14 last year -- came as no surprise, with more than 2,000 people killed this year alone.

In approving their request, the senators said they "welcome and endorse the support of the international community" in the search, which includes the United States, Britain, France and Israel.

The senators called on Jonathan, who has been criticised for his lacklustre response to the mass kidnapping, to expand co-operation to bring an end to the violence.

They also called for a "full military operation" to be conducted to crush the insurgents as well as non-military means to tackle the roots of the rebellion in the impoverished north.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/87264/nigeria-hit-by-twin-car-bombings-118-dead